Bollywood star branded Muslim 'non-believer' after Hindu festival
LUCKNOW, India (AFP) Bollywood bad boy Salman Khan is in hot water again --
this time with some of the country's Muslim clerics.
Khan, known for playing a tough guy in his films, has been branded a
"non-believer" and ordered to reaffirm his faith in Islam after participating
in a festival honouring the Hindu elephant god Ganesh in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The order came from scholars at the influential Daarul-Ifta Manzare school in
northern Uttar Pradesh state, which claims hundreds of thousands of followers
among India's approximately 140 million Muslims.
"Be it a pauper or a king, everyone has to follow the dictates of Islam --
nobody has been given the exemption to bypass the tenants of the religion,"
religious scholar Nafeez Khan told AFP by telephone.
The 41-year-old actor must reaffirm his faith before an imam and two witnesses,
the cleric said, describing the religious decree as "right and appropriate."
Khan was released on bail last month pending his appeal against a conviction
for killing protected wildlife. He also faces charges of manslaughter after a
road accident in 2002 left one person dead and four injured.
Comment:
This is one of the problems of Muslims living as a minority in India, some
Muslims will do anything to fit in, but still the Hindu Fanatic parties will
demand more. So actions like this attempting to integrate and gain acceptance
achieve nothing except compromise ones own belief.
The Islamic scholars are correct when they say that everyone must follow the
teachings of Islam regardless of social class and its a good thing that they
are speaking out about such issues. It is their silence in the past about
societal issues which has led to Muslims only practicing Islam inside the
masjid and follwoing non-Islam in the rest of their lives.
Watch the vid below, another Muslim actor talks about Islam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py7sFkIGi-k
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